


Birdland – Beginnings

by Ischa



Series: Birdland [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Birds, Family, Gen, Orphans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-23
Updated: 2013-04-27
Packaged: 2017-12-09 07:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/771849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ischa/pseuds/Ischa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is all about Robins being cute birds and Dick making them into a family. </p><p>  <i>“Tell me about the first bird-people,” John says, he’s yawning already and will most likely fall asleep halfway through the story. His belly is full from the cinnamon bun Dick found today and he is warm and his feathers are a bit ruffled from the wind, which is stronger now that winter is approaching.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prequel to Birdland.  
> Beta by Icalynn <3
> 
>  
> 
> **Now with art <3 done by seigan_aurora/Emmy. I am thrilled and love it to pieces. \o/ **

****

**Part One: John**

Dick is flying circles and loops for his own amusement – and maybe for the amusement of the small human kids too – when he hears a high pitched scared sound. He dives down into the bushes he thinks it’s coming from and lands smoothly on a thick branch. Hidden from human eyes and ears.  
He looks around a bit and as he hops a few branches down where the bushes become traps with thorns he hears the high pitched whimper again.  
He dives down. There’s no other way and he does want to help.  
  
~+~  
The fledgling is no bird. Not only, he’s one of Dick’s people and Dick hasn’t seen any of his own kind since his parents died. His heart beats a bit faster at the realization. But even if it weren’t one of his kind, even if it were ‘only’ a bird, Dick would’ve helped, it’s who he is. 

“Hey there,” he says gently so he doesn’t startle the kid. The kid looks up, all big eyes and trembling beak. He’s afraid, even of Dick. “Are you lost?” Dick asks. 

The kid shakes his head. “No, yes,” he says. 

“Where are your parents?” Dick asks, coming closer carefully. Mindful of the thorns that have the kid trapped. 

“I don’t know. My mommy is gone and my dad hasn’t come back for days now,” the kid answers. 

“And you were hiding here and waiting for your dad to come back?” Dick wants to know. 

The kid nods. “I don’t think he is coming back anymore.” 

The thing is, Dick doesn’t either. “Let’s get you out of here first, okay?” 

The kid nods. “Thank you.” 

“Don’t mention it,” Dick replies and begins to untangle the kid from the branches and thorns.  
  
~+~  
The kid’s name is John and he is smart and wonderful, and Dick loves to snuggle up to him and listen to his heartbeat slowing down when he falls asleep against Dick’s side. How anyone could abandon that kid is beyond Dick. 

John loves to listen to Dick’s stories.  
“My mom used to tell me stories, but I can’t remember,” John says quietly. Dick wonders if John can’t remember the stories or his mom, but he doesn’t ask. 

“My mom used to tell me stories too,” Dick replies. “I liked those about finding a home and a family the most.”

“I like those too,” John says, crawling under Dick’s wing. “Tell me a good one. With a happy ending.”

“Sure,” Dick replies easily.  
  
~+~  
It takes some time for Dick to figure out that John is still afraid Dick will leave him. Or that he won’t come back from hunting. John hasn’t left their nest since Dick brought him here. He goes out with Dick sometimes, but only close to their home. At the foot of the tree. 

“I won’t leave you, John. You’re my family now,” Dick says, rubbing his beak carefully against John’s belly. 

John giggles. “Where is your family, Dick?” He asks. 

Dick had wondered when John would muster the courage to ask. “They’re dead, John. I was all alone before you found me.”

“You found me,” John says earnestly. 

“We found each other,” Dick replies softly and John nods.  
  
~+~  
Sometimes John looks down at the kids playing in the park and Dick thinks he seems lonely. Dick isn’t that much older, but he can’t be in the nest all the time. He needs to get food and he needs to fly. He is going stir crazy when he can’t.  
Maybe, Dick thinks, just maybe what John needs are kids his age. 

“Did you have siblings?” Dick asks one evening. 

John is sitting high up in the tree, but not on one of the thin branches. “No, I always wanted one but then my mom went away and I know you need a mommy and a daddy to have baby-birds.” 

Dick smiles. “Yes, you need two people to make a family.” 

“We are two people,” John says.

“Yes,” Dick replies. “We are.”  
  
~+~  
John likes storms. He likes watching the rain and spreading his wing – or sometimes both to catch the drops and shudder in delight at the cold feeling of them on his feathers. He listens to the rain hitting the bark too and watches the earth underneath them like he wants to jump down just for the hell of it. 

It makes something inside Dick clench painfully watching John like this. It’s not a bad feeling. It’s sheer freaking happiness. He loves to see John happy. Dick is never ever going to lose John. John gave Dick a purpose he didn’t even know he had been lacking and filled that empty space in his heart where the love for his parents used to be. It’s still there, but it’s not an active ache.  
The love he feels for John is a growing, blooming kind. Dick always liked growing, changing things.  
  
~+~  
“Tell me about the first bird-people,” John says, he’s yawning already and will most likely fall asleep halfway through the story. His belly is full from the cinnamon bun Dick found today and he is warm and his feathers are a bit ruffled from the wind, which is stronger now that winter is approaching. They will have to move soon. Once all the leaves have fallen they won’t be warm enough here. 

“Back in the day when humans could still do magic a girl fell in love with a Phoenix,” Dick whispers. 

“Was she pretty?” John asks in a hushed voice. 

“She was very pretty. She had green eyes like young leaves and black hair, dark skin and pretty, pretty arms.”

“And that’s why the Phoenix loved her back?”

“Because she had pretty arms?” Dick smiles. 

“Because she was pretty? People like pretty things…” John trails off. 

Oh, Dick thinks. “You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” he says. 

John smiles at him. “You have the most beautiful eyes,” he replies. 

Dick laughs. “Wanna hear the rest of the story?” He asks. 

John nods.  
  
~+~  
John doesn’t like the new home that much. It’s too close to the ground. 

“I’m afraid someone will climb up,” he whispers. John isn’t afraid of cats much, he thinks about children. 

“Not all humans are bad. We are part human,” Dick says. 

“We are mostly birds. We only change when we find the one true love, if that love should be human, but I don’t think I could fall in love with a human girl,” John replies. 

“You still have plenty of time to find the right person for you to be with for the rest of your life, John.” 

“I found you already,” John says snuggling closer and Dick takes him under his wing and they listen to the wind howling stronger outside their little winter-home.

br /


	2. Chapter 2

**Part two: Jason**

Jason is small and wiry and too thin. He is hostile at first too. Says he doesn’t need any help. He can take care of himself. And Dick should just piss off. Dick’s never seen that kid in the park before. He smells like the city: Dirt, misery, and auto-fumes.   
Dick believes it, but the point is, Dick thinks, that he shouldn’t have to. Which he tells Jason too. 

“It’s cold and you’re all alone,” Dick says. “You don’t have to stay forever – just for a bit, until the snow melts.” 

Jason looks at him skeptically. “And what do you want in return?” He asks. 

“Nothing,” Dick replies. Dick has everything he and John need. 

“I don’t know…”

“We have food at home,” Dick says and Jason’s stomach makes a noise. 

“Fine,” he replies.   
   
~+~  
“Hey Dick!” John yells and flings himself at Dick’s chest, Dick hugs him back. Jason’s behind Dick, so John hasn’t seen him, but as he lets go of Dick, Jason’s head peeks out behind Dick’s back. “Oh,” and that is all John says.  
Jason glares as Dick turns from John’s face to look at him. John takes a step back. “Hi,” he says after what feels like an eternity of silence to Dick. “I’m John.” 

“Jason,” Jason replies. 

“Jason is going to stay with us for a bit,” Dick explains. 

“Until the snow melts. Or maybe not even that long. What would I even do here?” Jason says. 

“Uhm...play?” John asks. 

“Play!” Jason snorts. 

Well, Dick thinks, that will be fun. 

 

~+~  
Jason plays dirty and rough and he fights with John a lot. About everything, over everything and anything, but John just lets him. When they come inside again, John’s feathers are ruffled and sometimes there are scratches on him that bleed a bit and he always, always ends up pressed face down into the snow.   
Dick sighs as he sees John shaking out his feathers. Jason is away doing only Phoenix knows what. 

“It’s okay,” John says. 

“Why do you let him treat you that way?” 

“He likes to play rough,” John shrugs. 

“But you don’t-”

“I don’t mind either and it makes Jason happy.”

Dick gives him a look. “Really?” 

“He doesn’t show it like you and me,” John answers. 

Understatement of the century, Dick thinks. To Dick, Jason always looks grumpy. “Is he growing on you?” Dick asks. 

John shrugs, looking down. Oh, Dick thinks. Well, that is a disaster waiting to happen. But maybe John will grow out of his crush on Jason. They’re still just kids after all.   
“I like that he’s here,” John answers eventually. 

“I like it too. He’s lively,” Dick admits. 

“Yeah,” John replies.   
    
~+~  
Jason doesn’t always stay with them at first, but more often than not. He sleeps in a corner far away from where Dick and John are curled up. Dick offered to share their space but Jason looked kinda disgusted at the proposal. John thinks he’ll come around when it starts to be really cold during the nights. 

“I’m worried when he isn’t here, or close by,” John admits, looking longingly over the snow covered park. 

“He’ll be fine. He really can take care of himself. He’s lived in the city all by himself for a while,” Dick replies. 

“How do you know?” John asks. 

It’s hard to explain, Dick thinks, at least to John, who never was in the city. Dick grew up with his parents travelling a lot. All over the place. Settling down wasn’t ever meant for them. Dick smiles.   
“I just know,” he answers. 

John gives him a questioning look. “Okay?” 

“Look, John, it’s in the way he holds his body. I can just tell,” Dick says. 

John nods. “He does walk and fly differently from me.”

“Us,” Dick says. 

John shakes his head. “You don’t fly like anyone I’ve ever seen Dick. You are different. You’re like the heroes in the stories. With grace and stuff.” 

Dick laughs. “Thanks kid.” 

“I mean it, Dick,” John says. 

“I know,” Dick replies and tugs him under his wing. 

John snuggles closer. “Jason should let you hug him,” he mumbles. 

“Maybe one day he will.” 

~+~  
One night, when Dick comes home back late from his hunt for food, he finds Jason curled up against John and wonders and smiles.   
Maybe they are growing on Jason too. Dick can only hope for it. He doesn’t want Jason to leave and he knows that it would crush John’s heart if Jason would disappear again. He would be worried, they would be worried as hell. 

A kid like Jason, any kid, Dick thinks, shouldn’t be out and about alone living on the streets of the city.   
Even in the park they’re settled in, it’s dangerous sometimes. There are children and cats and all kinds of other feral things. 

“It’s because I told him my wings get cold without you there to keep me warm, and he just grumbled at me and then told me to scoot the hell over. His words, not mine, and then he let me crawl under his wing,” John says the next day as Dick asks how in the world he managed to make Jason snuggle up to him. 

“I see.” 

“He isn’t a bad person, Dick,” John says earnestly. 

“I know, kid,” Dick replies. 

“I want for him to stay with us, Dick. Ask him to stay.”

“I will, but we can only offer, we can’t make him, John,” Dick replies. 

“I know. I hope he likes us too,” John whispers. 

Dick doesn’t doubt that, but he isn’t sure if that’s enough. 

~+~  
“You want me to stay here with you?” Jason asks. 

John nods. “Well, not here, because as soon as it’s going to get warm enough we’re moving back into the high branches of the tree we usually occupy,” Dick says. 

“You want me to move in with you?” 

“Yes, Jason, we want it very much,” John answers. 

“I don’t know,” Jason says. 

“Do you have a better place to go?” John asks and Dick looks at him. John is rarely so aggressive. 

“Tons,” Jason bites out. 

“Bullshit,” John says. “I know you want to stay. We didn’t make you ask us if you can. We are offering, and all you have to do is say yes, because we want you here. And maybe you have some fancy rooftop in the city – even if I doubt that – you will be alone there.” 

“John,” Dick says a bit in awe over his outburst and logic. 

Jason glares and Dick hopes he doesn’t say no just to spite John now. It would be stupid and so very Jason.   
“My wings get cold sometimes during summer too,” John says quietly. 

“Fine,” Jason replies. “I’ll move in with you, but I’m not going to stay – like forever.” 

“Of course,” Dick replies, smiling.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part Three: Tim**

Funnily enough, Dick thinks, it’s Jason who finds Tim. 

“It's not like I care,” Jason begins, but he starts sentences like that often enough, so Dick doesn’t believe him. Besides Jason has been living with them for years now. He’s grown so much in the time he’s been here, Dick thinks, but he’s still a dick to John sometimes. And John is still letting him do whatever he wants – if it doesn’t damage John too much.   
Dick should talk with John about it again. Maybe this time it’ll stick. 

“Right,” Dick says with a smile. 

Jason scowls at him. “He’s small and will be eaten by a stray cat. And I know you would cry if you would find his dead body.” 

“I would,” Dick replies. 

“He’s playing by the fountain. Of all fucking things.” Jason nods his head in the vague direction of the fountain in the middle of the park. “Cats’ favourite stalking ground.” 

“I’m going to talk to him,” Dick says and spreads his wings.  
   
~+~  
Tim is small and thin, but he doesn’t look lost. Or tries not to appear lost. And he is young, very young. Even younger than John when he found him. 

“You should come out of there,” Dick says gently. 

The boy looks at him. “Why?”

“Because it’s not safe,” Dick answers. 

“What fun is that?” The boy wants to know. 

There is something different about him. Dick can feel it in his bones. He’s one of their kind, alright, but he isn’t afraid of humans- he doesn’t like them, that much is clear, but he isn’t afraid. Dick thinks this boy, Tim as Jason has called him, might be one of the rare shapeshiters. And the more he needs to bring him home, keep him safe.   
“Good question,” Dick replies. “So, you’re alone here?” Dick knows the kid is alone or Jason wouldn’t have even talked to Tim. 

The kid shrugs like it’s no big deal. He’s not even ten, Dick thinks. What is it with parents abandoning their children these days? “I like water, it’s the day for it.” 

“And when night falls? And the cats come out?” Dick asks. 

The kid shivers a bit. “I won’t be here by then.” 

“Where will you be, Tim?” Dick asks. 

“You’re friends with that other guy, the mean one.” 

“His name’s Jason and he’s my brother,” Dick says. He’s never said it out loud before, but it fits. It’s what they are. They’re family. It doesn’t matter that they weren’t born into the same one. Family has after all nothing to do with blood and everything to do with love. 

“You don’t look alike,” Tim replies. 

Dick shrugs. “Happens. He’s still my brother.” 

“Not by blood,” Tim says. 

He has an extremely quick and sharp mind. Dick is a bit impressed. “Not by blood. But blood doesn’t matter as much.”

“Isn’t that true,” Tim says, there is something bitter in his voice. “You want to take me home with you, don’t you?” 

Dick nods. “I do. It’s not a good idea for you to be here alone, at night.” 

Tim hops out of the water and shakes his feathers. They look way too soft, Dick thinks. “I agree, it’s not,” he says and follows Dick home.  
   
~+~  
Tim looks younger than he really is. He claims to be ten. Dick has no way to prove he’s lying, so he chooses to believe it. Still, Tim shouldn’t be alone. 

“So, you took in another stray,” Jason says. 

“Seems so. It’s my thing,” Dick replies. 

“You don’t have parents,” Tim says. His eyes are a bit wide. “You live here all on your own? Like the Lost Boys.”

“Like who?” John asks. 

“The Lost Boys from Peter Pan,” Tim says. 

“Never heard of it,” John answers. 

“It’s a story for children,” Tim says. 

“You know a lot of stories?” John asks, his interest piqued.

Tim nods. “A few.”

“Tell me about the Lost Boys?” John asks coming closer and settling down next to Tim, but he doesn’t touch Tim. John is just good like that with personal space and reading people. 

“Okay…” Tim answers a bit hesitantly. 

“Dick only tells stories about the old world, about the first Bird-people and their heroes and stuff,” Jason throws in. “I’m getting bored with it.” 

Dick smiles, because he knows it’s not true. Jason likes the adventure stories the most. All about the fights and battles and winning the game. Slaying the dragon, punishing the bad people. Saving people, hunting things. 

“So, you want to listen too?” John asks with a slight tilt to his head.

“Nothing better to do anyway,” Jason says just as it starts raining outside.  

John perks up. “I want to be closer to the rain,” he says, already getting up. Tim follows. They settle down on a branch that is far enough out that if they spread their wings, tilt their heads the rain will hit them. 

Kids, Dick thinks. At least they can’t get colds like humans. Small mercies and all that.

~+~  
Tim loves the fountain. He’s always grumpy when Dick tells him it’s time to go home. “Why can’t we just build a nest closer to it?” He asks. 

Dick bets he’s calculating right the hell now what they would need and how to get it there the fastest.   
“Because it’s not safe. Too many people like to be here during the warm months.” 

Tim sighs. “I’m not afraid of humans.” 

“You don’t like to be around them either,” Dick counters. 

“They’re loud and they hurt each other all the time,” Tim replies quietly. 

“Tim,” Dick says. “What happened to your parents?”

“They were taken,” Tim answers. 

“Taken? You mean they’re dead?” 

“I don’t know Dick. Taken away from me. I don’t know if they’re alive or not. They’re gone and I-” he stops, “I don’t _know_.” Tim finishes and he’s trembling. His whole small body is shaking. 

Dick hugs him and lets him snuggle into his feathers until his breathing evens out again. “Maybe they’re still alive,” Dick says. 

“It doesn’t matter, because they’re not here, Dick.” 

Dick hugs him a bit tighter. “We’re here. And we will never leave.”

Tim nods against Dick’s chest.


End file.
